Some manufacturing systems are designed such that a single metal coil is fed to a blanking press, the blanking press is cycled in order to individually produce a production quantity or lot of metal blanks, the metal blanks are then stored as inventory and/or transferred to another location, and finally the metal blank inventory is processed by a subsequent operation, such as a stamping, welding, fabrication, assembly, or other operation.
Other manufacturing systems are based on “takt time” or “cycle time,” as is appreciated by those skilled in the art. Takt time generally refers to the amount of time that is allowed per cycle during a manufacturing process, and it typically sets the pace of the manufacturing process. In a vehicle assembly process, for example, vehicles are assembled on a line and are advanced from station to station after a certain amount of time; this period of time may be referred to as the “takt time.”